


Grub Daycare

by seamonster (orphan_account)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Day Care, Fluffy, Grubs, Kismesis, M/M, Moirails, kinda pointless, matesprits, parenthood!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-07
Updated: 2012-06-23
Packaged: 2017-10-30 18:46:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/334909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/seamonster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a proverbial baby boom in the veil. Honestly, that was the only way to describe it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> What is this crack shit? I'm honestly not even sure. But I love my John and Sollux crack pairing, kay? Also, the story itself is....well, pretty much pointless. I'm not even sure why I wrote it or where it came from, it just sort of spewed forth, so here it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> milo stop  
> don't you dare  
> it's too embarrassing, you can read anything else you want but this one.

"Well?"

 

"....Is it supposed to be that color?"

 

Sollux's lips tightened into a thin line, making a very slight clicking noise in the back of his throat.

 

"Oh! Right, I'm sorry! I just, I keep forgetting."

 

"Flattering. What color ith it?" Though his voice was mostly flat, John heard the faintest trace of concern. Hell, why wouldn't he be concerned?

 

"Well, it's kind of....an orange-y color, I think?"

 

"Are you thure ith not juth the thlime?"

 

"Ohhh, you could be right." Another faint clicking noise was his response.

 

But you couldn't blame him for being unsure. What lay so very innocently in the vat of soper slime was something John had never encountered before. Sure, he'd seem stuff similar in sci-fi movies, but all of that was fake. Latex molds and animatronics. The grub that lay, unmoving, in the slime was so very very real. And so very very...theirs. A thought that never ceased to make him flush to the very tips of his ears.

Okay, so technically it wasn't actually John's. Not that Eridan and Sollux hadn't spent an absurd amount of time trying to configure a way for troll and human genetic material to match up, to conform together. It just didn't happen; genetically, they were too different. But this was just as well. After they'd finished their grub-making machine-thingy (John wasn't still too clear on exactly what it was or how it all worked. Which shamed his childhood claim of being an ectobiologist), John still got to help in the making of this particular grub. Another thought that would probably never cease to make him flush to the very tips of his ears.

They'd been matesprits for just over one sweep, but that was admittedly the first time they'd, well, pailed. Not that they were going to tell that to anyone.

 

"Oh!"

 

"What?"

 

"It moved!" John practically sqeauled, and he immediately wound his arms around one of the troll's, holding tight. They both leaned a bit over the vat, quiet, breathing shallow. John leaned so he could watched raptly, Sollux so he could hear everything. It took another moment before the grub to twitch again. Although it was in the slime, it was also still inside of it's pod, the membrane had grown thinner and more transparent the closer it got to waking up. Through the goo, John could barely make out another twitch, but then it twitched again, much stronger. He had to clap a hand over his mouth to stifle an excited/anxious whine as he watched.

The grub wiggled in the membrane for a moment, shifting and stretching until finally- Even Sollux gasped when they heard the pod pop, "we have to get it out."

 

"Right," instinctively, John let go to lean down, but hands on his shoulders stopped him.

 

"Uthe the thcoop, ith a newborn, ith legth are delicate but tharp."

 

"Right."

 

Although his hands were shaking and his heart was racing a million miles a minute, John managed to scoop the wriggling grub up out of the soper and put it gently on the counter.

 

"Should I clean it off?"

 

"Um, thure, uthe water and juth kind of dribble it." Sollux still had his hands on the human teen's shoulders, so John could feel him trembling, too.

 

The grub was still just wriggling around on the counter as John soaked a washcloth. When he gently squeezed it over the grub, the layer of green slime started washing away and the wriggling slowed. John didn't even realize he was holding his breath. But the sound of six pudgey little legs, tipped in individual claws, clicked against the counter, and the grub raised it's head for the first time.

 

"Oh my-"

 

"...What? Whath wrong?"

 

Sollux's arms wound tightly around his chest in worry, but John was too busy tearing up to make note of how the troll was never this clingy. Instead, his breath escaped him in a shudder laugh."It's _adorable_."

 

That seemed to make Sollux freeze for a second, until he sighed all his panic away and put his face in his matesprit's neck. "Dipthit"

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

"Ah, ah, open wide~"

 

John sat on the floor of his and Sollux's Block. His legs were extented in front of him, with an ottoman in between. It was a very special ottoman because it was Grubgrub's ottoman. And on the ottoman was what dominated nearly 24/7 of John's attention nowadays.

In his opinion, Grubgrub was the cutest thing he'd ever seen in his entire life. Cuter than Jade's singing, and cuter than that noise Sollux makes whenever John sneaks a bite to his ear. Even more cute than all of that combined.

John had been wrong about the color before, it wasn't orange-y, at all. It was, in fact, the same pretty honey yellow color of Sollux's blood. It also had it's father's same four horns, only smaller on the grub's little head, poking out through black, fuzzy hair. And it's eyes, bright and yellow. John didn't meet Sollux face-to-face until after the troll met his fate of blindness, so he'd never seen his eyes before that. But, apparently, hearing that their grub had those normal colored eyes made Sollux happier than he'd looked in a while.

Well, ever, really.

The end of the spoon he held out was nawed on slightly, a little yellow tongue flicking out over the soft food it bore. John chuckled softly at the cute display. It was strange, but he kind of felt like he was looking at what Sollux most likely looked like when he was a grub. The fingers of his free hand pet the pudgey grub's back as he ate, earning a small chorus of chirps. When the spoon was empty, Grubgrub just continued to naw on it, drooling happily.

 

The rather melodious sound of John's laughter was the first thing to meet Sollux when he opened the door, and the frown he'd been wearing most of the day lifted almost immediately. John just had that effect on people. Was one of the reasons Sollux had found himself so easily flushed for the human. "M'back," he hummed idley, making sure to lock the door behind himself.

 

"Hey," John immediately answered, and Sollux could just hear the smile in his voice. He could also hear now familiar chirping. "How are things going with the planet search?"

 

"Dithmal," his feet carried him straight to where his small family was in the room, and he sat down right behind his matesprit, long legs on either side of his hips, arms wrapping loosely about his tummy as he slid his chin over his shoulder. Feeling John's chuckle against his chest actually made Sollux smile, for the first fucking time that day. "Howth the grub?"

 

"He's drooling again. But at least he's not puking his food up like he was this morning. I swear, Grubgrub is a puking machine."

 

"Jeguth fuck, John, are you thtill calling him that?"

 

"Yes! Yes I am, because you don't want to name him," John's body turned a little against his chest and he grunted a bit when an elbow nudged his side.

 

"Ith not that I don't want to name him, he'th juth a grub, he can't even talk. He doethn't need a name until he'th older."

 

"And I'm just supposed to call him 'the grub' for the next couple of sweeps? You want me to call our son 'the grub', just because of some old, stupid troll customs?"

 

Sollux knew quickly that this was an argument he was not going to win. Ever since the grub had wiggled out of it's pod and into their lives a couple weeks ago, John's attitude towards certain things changed. He was acting like a fuckin' lusus, only worse. A female, human lusus. So he sighed and urged John to sit straight again, putting his face into his neck, "You can name him whatever you want."

 

"Really?"

 

He gave a snort at the complete change in tone, but nodded. His nod got side-tracked as his nose trailed up over John's warm neck, Gog, it amazed him how soft human skin could be, how soft humans were all around.

 

"Awesome. You hear that, Grubgrub? We're gonna give you a name."

 

"A name that ithn't Grubgrub."

 

"Duh, he would hate us for life if we called him that."

 

Sollux hummed an agreeable sound, sighing contentedly. This was the best way to wind down from work, in his opinion. His senses over-ridden by everything John Egbert, the warmth of his wonderful mammalian body, the sound of his voice as he chittered and cooed to responding chirps. The subtle, but absolutely addictive scent of his skin, which Sollux shamelessly inhaled as the tip of his nose brushed over the gentle slope of the human's sternocleidomastoid.

A giggle made him tilt his head in attention.

 

"That tickles everytime."

 

"Hn," Sollux smirked just a bit, pressing a soft kiss to John's neck. "Thorry." Except that he wasn't sorry, not even remotely.

 

"Are you hungry? I made something earlier I can heat up."

 

"No," another kiss found itself placed right behind John's ear, and he was rewarded by feeling the slightest of tremurs trickle down his matesprit's spine. His smirk widened. He also decided that his hands were being totally useless, fingers threaded together as they rest lightly against John's tummy. So he detangled them and slipped them up a t-shirt hem instead, at the same time letting his tongue sneak out for a gentle swipe at the earlobe he was nuzzling.

The following gasp, that was somehow sharp and shakey at the same time, was pretty much one of the greatest sounds John could make.

 

"Sol," the chuckle mixed in with his name was breathier than the usual. "Honestly, not in front Nicolas."

 

Sollux's original reply was nipped very quickly, replaced with, "Nicolath? Oh, _hell_ no."

 

"Matthew?"

 

Sollux frowned as he sat up straight, "no, John, juth no. We're not naming him after thome thitty human actor."

 

"Umm, Casey?"

 

"He'th a boy."

 

"That can be a boy's name."

 

"No."

 

"Spangler?"

 

"Thank you, John, you've offithally bulge-blocked me. Congratulationth, you're not getting pailed tonight."

 

"What?" Sollux grunted again when John's elbow hit his rips in the human's haste to turn and look at him. But he wasn't given time to complain. "Nooooo~nonono, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, please," John had turned completely around, and arms were wound immediately around his neck. His words were pleaded in a soothing tone, in between kisses that seemed a little more desperate than what he was saying. They tipped backwards onto the floor, but that didn't stop anything. "I can un-bulge-block you, I promise."

 

Sollux didn't say anything, mostly because his hands were already sliding up the back of the human's shirt. John kissed him again, sweeter this time, completely laid out over his boyfriend and completely happy about it. Yet, before he could nibble on his lip the way he knew Sollux really liked, the troll pulled back.

 

"I thought you thaid not in front of Grubgrub."

 

Oh right.

 

"We're not doing anything in front of Grubgrub."

 

"Thith ith nothing?" Sollux smoothed his hands back down to John's waist, the slightest twist of a smirk on his face.

 

"This is being paused so you can put him to bed while I clean up right quick," John did kiss his smirking face once more, though. "And we can unpause in the bedroom."

Before Sollux could really even agree or disagree, John was already getting up off of him. So he sighed and sat back up as well. "Here you are, daddy."

 

When he held his hands out, a pudgey little grub was placed in his palms, legs wiggling in a completely not-tired manner. But the happy little trill he got as his thumb was promptly chewed on did make the softest of smiles light Sollux's face. And he didn't miss John's fond chuckle. "Bedtime, grub," he stood carefully. "And if you promith to go to thleep right away, I'll make thure mommy giveth you a-..."

 

"Gives him a what? Oh," John snorted a laugh that he sounded like he tried to stifle.

 

Sollux was just frowning. "...He juth puked on me, didn't he?"


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and by tomorrow I meant today. But hey, at least I already have chapter three started.

It was a proverbial baby boom in the veil. Honestly, that was the only way to describe it. While just kind of fiddling around with some of the ectobiology equipment in one of the labs one day, Eridan and Sollux actually figured out that they could quite possibly use it to make grubs. The notion had been posed to everyone else, experimented, and before they could really grasp the importance of what they were doing, there were pods in the vat of soper slime.  
They'd been living together on the meteor for almost two whole sweeps, so it had sounded like a pretty good way to pass the time. It wasn't until the first grub popped it's pod that it dawned on everyone that this was actually a big thing. They were making children.

  
Suddenly, the importance of finding a planet suitable to be inhabited by both the human and troll species impressed upon them in a migraine inducing manner. The veil was no place to raise kids.

  
"You're here early."

  
Eridan didn't even bother to turn away from the screen he was studying, the computer running the diagnostic program Sollux had created on yet another planet, to see if it was any good.

  
"I'm not early, Sol, you're just late. Wwhat givves?"

  
"It wath my turn to wake up with the grub." But there was a tone in his voice Eridan wasn't used to, and it did finally make him glance side-long. And wish he hadn't, then snap his head back to the screen. The troll who'd just entered the labs was just kind of strolling across the room, hands in his pockets, looking way more relaxed than normal. There was also a kind of dopey, content twist to his lips that had Eridan suspecting that waking up with the grub wasn't the only thing Sol spent his night doing.  
And it made him scowl, just a little.

  
"...Howw's John?" his kept his tone indifferent, despite how contempt wanted to lace it's way into his words. And he actually let himself look again.  
As he thought, Sollux's face took on a smirk of a smug nature, shoulders straightening a little. And the answer he hummed made Eridan's teeth grit together. "Fuckin' fantathtic." Eugh. Eridan promptly from then on ignored Sollux until he actually had to talk to him. He hated the very fact that he was one of the only ones competant enough to work with; he couldn't stand the pretentious, undeserving douchebag.  
So, instead of speaking, he just continued to scowl at the screens again. Because of this, he missed the way Sollux's smirk turned into a small grin. Sollux didn't have to have eyes to be able to see how flushed Eridan was for John. It was pretty much painted all over the sea-dweller's voice. Knowing this was literally the only reason Sollux could tolerate working alongside the creep. He fucking loved rubbing their matespritship in his face.  
Right where he'd left them the day before, Sollux picked up his head phones and placed them over his ears so he could get to work. The computer screens in front of him had been alchemized very carefully, and  sweet little medley of sounds flowed through the headphones as he placed his fingers upon them. Using the sounds as a guide, he could navigate his way through what was on-screen. It'd been John's idea. By now, Sollux was just as good at seeing with the musical screens as Terezi was at seeing with taste and smell.

  
Thinking about John made him fall back into that dopey, content little smile again. The grub was soooo not the reason he'd left to go to the labs later than usual. In fact, Grubgrub slept like a fucking rock through most of the morning, like always.  
But jegus fuck did Sollux love it when John woke up horny. And he was much more concerned about pailing his human boyfriend, than being on time. It also gave him a prime opportunity to gloat, which was something he very much enjoyed.  
It was pretty much cool that he apparently could gloat, and not just around Ampora, according to that douche-that-he-was-forced-to-like-because-of-John, Strider. The supposed coolkid thought it his duty to inform Sollux that in making John his matesprit, he'd 'bagged himself one unbelievabley dweeby babe. Like seriously, it shouldn't be possible for geek to look so derpy and hot at the same time.' Obviously, he couldn't see what Strider meant, but he could whole-heartedly agree with the hot part. By now, he had a pretty damn good mental image that John had embarressedly let him map out through touch.  
Despite his obviously different human anatomy, John was beautiful. And it wasn't just in his neck (although that was one of Sollux's favorite parts, John just made so many gorgeous noises when he touched it), it was in the curve of his spine that always moved into his touch, and the the gentle quiver in his thighs as they squeezed around his hips. Fuck, every inch of the heir was beautiful to touch, and Sollux only wished he had maybe tried to talk to John, just once, while he could still see.  
Not that he hadn't been described to Sollux, he had, by John and by Karkat (who's description Sollux almost immediately disregarded because he made John sound rather unsightly). But it wasn't the same as actually seeing him.

  
Oh well.

  
Finally, Sollux placed John from the forefront of his attention to the kind-of-off-to-the-sidepart of his attention, and got down to what he was working on. He was trying to map more of a previously unkown part of the galaxy while Eridan scanned planets, because, so far, every possible planet candidate was turning up uninhabitable. Maybe they could expand their search.

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
It had become a daily routine for John to take Grubgrub with him everywhere he went outside of his and Sollux's block. He'd don his pants and god-tier tee, pull his hood over his head, put the grub on his shoulder and be off just like that. Grubgrub would curl into his neck and hold on by a mouthful of blue hood, slowly saturating the material with drool and purring practically the whole time.  
John would go to the nutritionblock first. Sure, he could technically cook in his own block, thanks to the handy stove he'd alchemized, but he liked being able to see everyone. And where ever food was, was generally where everyone gathered at some point during the day. He'd barely made it to the door before it slid open suddenly, two squeeling trolls bursting through it and nearly running right into him.

  
"Oh-John! Good meow-rning~" Nepeta hugged him immediately about the midsection as she was prone to do, and John just hugged right back as he was prone to respond.

  
"Yes, good morning, John! It's wwonderful to sea you," Feferi smiled wide, cupping her hands under her chin. John still found it horribly sweet the way some of the trolls were trying to take human culture into consideration, probably in an attempt to keep the very few humans there actually were left from having emotional breakdowns at the very thought.

  
And so he was more than happy to show his gratitude, "good morning, ladies!"

  
"And Grubgrub looks so cute today!" Nepeta leaned back in the hug to smile up at the grub on his shoulders. "Oh him and little Nepurrta could be such good friends!"  
Said 'Nepurrta' made her entrance in the form of Equius joining them in the hallway. He held the grub with all of the care, despite how it was wiggling in his hands, wanting to play. Equius gave him a nod of greeting, which John returned with a smile.

  
"I'm afraid wwe must be off, though, John. I left my owwn grub in the tank wwhile wwe wwere eating."

  
"It's no problem, Feferi. I'll see you guys later," John and Nepeta's hug stance disengaged, and he waved them off before finally entering the nutritionblock. And was very promptly met by something warm and wet on his face.

  
"Oh, John, it's you. I'm not gonna lie, I was kind of hoping you were Vriska."

  
"Good morning to you, too, TZ," John chuckled lightly as he wiped his cheek with the end of his hood. "Why are you waiting to tongue bomb Vriska?"

  
Terezi didn't really give an answer, instead she just kind of grinned and laughed low in her throat as she gave him a perhaps too strong pat on the back. "Dave's over there with the little monster," she said instead.

  
John looked in the direction she vaguely motioned to, spotting his best bro who was slumped at a table by himself. The little monster was, in fact, Terezi's grub. The oldest one, actually, since she'd volunteered for the initial experiment. And said grub was on the table in front of the extremely tired looking blond. John sat down across from him with an ever ready smile.

  
"Morning, Dave."

  
All he got was a grunt in response. But the little monster looked up from the little mess she'd made of her food and made a sound that was somewhere between a hiccup and a burb. It was cute.

  
"Oh, c'mon, there is no way you can be this tired, dude. Look at me! Do I look tired?" John grinned as he carefully removed Grubgrub from his shoulder, placing him on the table in front of him as well. Grubgrub looked at the little monster warily, no longer purring.

  
"Yes," was Dave's deadpan answer, although John was sure he hadn't even raised his head.

  
"Well, I'm not. Because raising one grub between two people isn't all that hard."

  
"Two people?" Dave finally raised his head. His sunglasses had slipped down his nose, so John could pretty clearly read the exhaustion in candy-red eyes. "I'm the only one raising this freaky alien baby."

  
John frowned faintly, "Terezi doesn't help?"

  
"She 'tutors' it. But when it comes down to feeding it, playing with it, cleaning it, cleaning up after it, and waking up with it at night, she leaves all of that to me," he jabbed his thumb at his chest as he said the last part, and for the first time John noticed he was wearing a pretty ridiculous tee that read '#1 Uncle in the Galaxy'.

  
"Oh."

  
"Yes, Egbert. Fuckin' oh."

  
Well, that hardly seemed fair. In fact, Dave looked just about ready to collapse. Biting his lip, John stood up from the table and was about to turn away when he heard a frantic chirp. Oops. He rescued Grubgrub from the table, where the little monster appeared to be stalking him like some sort of prey, and he marched straight over to where everyone could get their food.

  
"Morning John!" Jade greeted him enthusiastically with a wave as he approached. But before John could return the gesture, a sharper voice cut through the air.

  
"Oh, would you look at that? The great and almighty Heir has graced our meager presense."

  
"Good Morning, Karkat."

  
The nub-horned troll scowled more when he was addressed back. It was funny to see him on nutritionblock duty, because he hated it so damn much. And he was on it more often since the grubs had come about, because most everyone raising a grub had been temporarily excused from certain duties in favor of their new positions as nurturers. Everyone still had some sort of job to do, though, to make sure life on the meteor stayed comfortable.

  
"What do you and that ugly thing want? I thought our food wasn't good enough to shove down your protein chute."

  
"Karkat! Seriously, what have we been talking about? You need to stop speaking to everyone like that," Jade interjected with her hands on her hips, tone very stern. But she gave John a smile again. "Do you need anything?"

  
"Ah, no, Jade, thanks. I was actually hoping I could talk to Karkat, if I could steal him away for a moment?"

  
Karkat actually looked genuinely shocked, Jade, too, for that matter.  
"You want to talk to him?"

  
"If I could," John smiled the most charming smile he had in his arsenal. Although, he kind of missed the red tint that blossomed in the troll's face. "Just for a moment, it's important."

  
Karkat coughed and snapped out of his surprise, untying the apron he was forced to wear and tossing it at Jade. "Whatever."

  
John led him out of the nutritionblock and down the hall a little ways, ignoring how the troll sighed behind him. "I seriosuly doubt anything you have to say to me is important enough to take these measures."

  
But John didn't stop until they were in an empty room, locking the door behind them. The troll he turned back to already had his arms crossed and a bored expression on his face.

  
"I have a feeling what you're going to say is going to be really stupid. In fact, since it's coming from you, that's pretty much guarenteed."

  
"I'm concerned about Terezi's grub."

  
".....Okay, that's actually a legitimate concern. But honestly, who wouldn't be? It's Terezi's grub."

  
"Did you know she's been making Dave take care of it? Like, all the time? Is that really fair? It's not even his."

  
"If he's tired of it, he should just give it back. But that still doesn't make it your problem, so I fail to see why you care. Or why you think I should."

  
John sighed with a small slump to his shoulders, though the corners of his lips quirked when he felt gentle nibbles on his ear. "It's just, a lot of us are parents now, yanno?" To illustrate his point, he gently lifted Grubgrub off his shoulder. The grub purred and wiggled it's feet at John.

  
"We're all living here together, like a family, and we're raising kids. So, shouldn't we all be concerned about each other?"

  
Karkat was looking at Grubgrub with a distinct expression of disdain.

  
"I know why you chose not to make a grub. And you're probably the smartest one out of all of us," John's chuckle was a little sad. "But, it's still a thing that happened."

Karkat didn't respond right away, he was still staring at Grubgrub like he was some sort of germ. So, John turned him around in his hands to face the troll. Grubgrub was still wiggling it's feet, but it's bright yellow eyes stared at Karkat unblinkingly. Finally, the Cancer turned away with a small huff.  
"Fine, I'll fucking talk to Terezi about how terrible of a lusii she's being, alright? Just point that ugly thing in a different direction."

  
John lit up with a smile almost immediately, "thanks, Karkat!" He made a motion of gently tossing the grub in the air, gentle currents wrapping about it keeping it suspended long enough for John to nearly crack Karkat's spine in a hug, despite how the troll sputtered and turned red. (What the fuck are you doing!? Are you trying to traumatize your grub?! And you're concerned about Terezi's parenting?!)

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  


It wasn't part of his usual day, but when John found himself close to the labs it was kind of hard to resist going in to see his boyfriend. Though, when he poked his head in, it was Eridan he spotted first.

  
The finned troll was standing at the large tri-screen station, each screen showing something different on what appeared to be the same planet. It was kind of a funny-looking planet, John noted as he floated quietly on over. Had strange trees that kind of resembled open umbrellas, but seemed to be dripping gooey black stuff. As his feet lightly touched the ground, each screen blinked something in red, one right after the other. The words were Alternian, so John couldn't read it, but if Eridan's huff was anything to go by, it wasn't good.  
"Another no?"

  
Eridan nearly jumped a foot in the air, head snapping down to see John at his side, smiling pleasently up at him. John watched in fascination, as he always did, at the purple flush that rose in his face, staining his cheeks and the tips of his ears.

  
"John, uh, wwell, yes. Another unsuitable planet, I'm afraid. Um, wwhat brings you here?" Eridan had a feeling that he was sounding way too much like Tavros, but could hardly help it. That smile was just unbelievably adorable, and hard to face down without getting a little flustered. But John was either oblivious to his fluster, or was kind enough not to point it out, thank Gog.

  
Instead, he just lit up that way he did and offered another smile.

  
"Oh, I was just with Rose and Kanaya over in the prep room, decided to drop by on my way to lunch."

  
Of course, by drop by, he meant to see Sollux. And Eridan knew that, but he couldn't help but feel a little bit special that John had decided to stop and talk to him first. Fuckin' glub <3

  
"But, I can see that you're busy, so I will let you get back to what you were doing."

  
Damn.

  
"Right, thank you."

  
John smiled a small wave as he backed up a few steps, and Eridan returned it, then forced himself to turn around. Turn around and try to block out everything that he knew was about to go on behind him.

  
  
Sollux's fingers moved smooth and confident around the two screens in front of him. Music hummed through the headphones on his ears with no distinguishable beat, but it guided him through the stars on-screen. When he worked like this, Sollux pretty much just shut the rest of the world out. If Eridan ever needed anything, he'd send a message to one of Sollux's screens for his fingers to brush over. Other than that, he was wrapped in his own little world of music and stars.  
So when he felt the barest of air currents tickle at the front of his shirt, and on his arms, he paused what he was doing completely, and smiled. A small smile that was soon met by a pair of wonderfully soft lips. Soft and warm.

  
"Thith ith uncommon," was the first thing he hummed outside of the kiss, hands leaving the screens to rest lightly on the small of the human's back and pull the floating teen closer. His headphones were slipped off his ears and left to dangle around his neck.

  
"As it should be, since I really shouldn't interrupt your work," John's arms wrapped loosely about his neck though. "It's very important, afterall."

  
"Extremely," Sollux agreed, taking another little kiss before he hummed much softer, "but tho are you."

  
He adored the feeling of soft chuckles bubbling up in John's chest, and how they were spilled softly against his lips. "Dweeb."

  
As Sollux kissed his matesprit again, much more lingering this time, he felt something wiggle it's way out of John's hood and up onto his own shoulder, sharp little feet digging in lightly as it trilled in his ear. Snorting softly made him pull away. "Yeth, Grubgrub, you're important, too."

  
"Damn right he is," John was still grinning against his mouth, but after another short kiss he pulled back just the tiniest bit, to actually talk. "Have you had any lunch?"

  
"Nope," he actually hadn't eaten a thing yet, unless you counted John, which Sollux, of course, did. But that was much earlier, in what John called their 'morning'. (Because who the hell could really figure this time thing out aside from Dave and Aradia, who assured them they were on the correct frame of counting their days.)

  
"If I made you some lunch and brought it to you, would you eat it?"

  
Sollux felt soft fingers brushing some of the hair behind his ear, and heard a light clicking that could very likely be grub teeth knawing on his headphones. That little weirdo just couldn't stop chewing and drooling, could he? Oh, and puking.  
"Fuck yeth, I would," and he'd let John feed him, right in front of Eridan, just to hear him huff.

  
"Yeah?"

  
"Mmhm."

  
"What if I wanted to drag you away for an hour or two?"

  
"What for?"

  
"Oh, you know, lunch, and stuff."

  
"And thtuff?"

  
"Mmmstuff," that was hummed before a kiss. "Because, yanno, the galaxies will still be here when you get back."

  
"Incredibly fair point."

  
"Oh, wwould you twwo just get a room already!"

  
John's laughter echoed in the labs, mingled with Sollux's own soft chuckles, plus the happy little trills Grubgrub rang out purely for the fact that it's parents were laughing. But while these sounds did cover the sound of the door sliding open, it couldn't outweigh the screech that followed.

  
"ERIDAN!"

  
Feferi marched into the labs with what could possibly be the world's most adorable angry expression, her cheeks flushing fuschia. She was dripping water on the floor a bit, and held in her hand a purple grub. John drifted down to have his feet on the ground, arms sliding down from his boyfriend's neck. Uh-oh.

  
Eridan stared at her kind of wide-eyed behind his thick frames, gulping before asking, "yeah, Fef?"

  
"You. Take this, this, sea-monster. I don't evver wwant to sea it near my glub again!" Her glub?

  
"But Fef, I'm at wwork. I can't-"

  
"I don't care! I'm nevver taking care of this creep again! It just about scared my poor glub to death! I don't care if you havve wwork. It's your responsibility, deal wwith it!" And with that, she promptly shoved the grub at a flustered Eridan, then stomped her way out of the labs again. John was positive she'd never even noticed them standing there.

  
John looked to Eridan, then. Noting his dejected and lost expression as he stared at the grub (who promptly squirmed in his hands, hissing, and trying to get away from him). Then he looked up at Sollux. The Gemini was already sighing softly, like he knew what was coming. Probably because he did.

  
"I'll get thome lunch later."

  
"You promise to actually eat it this time? Don't think I don't notice how you skip breakfast."

  
"Yeth, yeth, I promith."

  
"Good," John leaned up on his toes, tugging the troll down a bit for a last kiss. He also retrieved their son from his shoulders. "I'll see you tonight."

  
"Yeah." And Sollux let him go, to go do his friendleader thing. Even if it had to be with fucking Eridan Ampora.  
  
"Hey, Eridan, I-whoa!" When John moved towards the sea-troll, he'd apparently startled him a bit. Because he dropped his little purple sea-monster. Luckily, with the help of his windy powers, John managed to catch the thing up, which apparently startled it greatly. When John had it in both hands, it blinked it's bright eyes up at him like it couldn't believe what it was seeing.

  
"John, I'm sorry you had to see that. I-"

  
"Eridan," John cut the tall troll short, smiling gently up at him and earning that flush again. "It must be hard. Raising a grub and being on duty for finding a planet. That must suck."

  
"Wwell, I mean, I don't havve a matesprit, sure, but-"

  
"Hey, I have an idea," John lit up, like the idea just hit him. "I could totally grub-sit for you."

  
"..Wwhat?"

  
"Sure, it'd be no problem! I mean, it's not like my duties are all that hard. I pretty much just make sure everyone else is doing their jobs. Plus, I'm already taking care of one grub, two won't be hard. Probably twice the fun!"

  
Eridan looked as though more magnificent words had never been spoken. He also looked like he was fighting the urge to just grab John and kiss him. Not that he'd be able to, John would buffet him back before he could come within a foot.

  
"So yeah, I can watch him during the days, and just drop him off at your block in the evenings. Oh, say, he's a swimmer, right? Does he need to spend time in water?"

  
Sollux turned back to his screens, pulling his headphones back up over his ears. He didn't need to chaparone a conversation of John and Eridan ironing out details of sea-grub care.

  
Although that didn't stop him from turning the volume down.

  
Just a little bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I imagine congratulations must be a hard word for Sollux to say, and civilization. 
> 
> Like always, if you see a mistake in my spelling or grammar, feel free to politely point it out to me. I am still without a beta reader. Thanks guys~


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This isn't an actual chapter summary, but HEY GUYS YOU SHOULD CHECK THIS OUT.  
> http://whiteclockblacktea.tumblr.com/post/18649462801/random-sketches-of-scenes-from-this-fic-over-at  
> I got fan-art on this fic.  
> me.  
> I got fan art! I am losing my mind right now. Could someone kindly help me locate my shit, I seemed to have lost it.
> 
> again, white clock, THANK YOU.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> um, pretty short chapter? Ye. But full of goodies. Especially at the end.

"What?"

  
Jade blinked her pretty green eyes at John, not even paying much attention to what she was doing. Not that she really needed to, honestly, she was so fluent with alchemizing codes she could make them in her sleep. Literally. These were just codes for yarn and fabric anyway. Easy-peasy. What John was saying to her was sooooo much more interesting. "What's a daycare?"

  
John wiggled a bit where he stood, giggling every so often into his words. "A daycare! You know, um, they existed back on Earth. Parents who worked during the day could drop their younger kids off there, and the daycare people would take care of them until their parents were done with work. They were really handy places." A little grub head poked up out of his hood, looking around for a moment with yellow eyes, than disappearing again.

  
John just continued talking. "And since there still is a lot of important stuff that has to get done in preperation, I think it could be useful if we set up a system like that, and take turns watching the grubs during the day," another head popped out of John's hood. Purple eyes spotted Jade and the grub promptly hissed and hid again. She could see them blindly chasing each other around John's neck, under the fabric. "Yanno, at least until the pupa period."

  
"Oohhh, right!" Jade lit up then, a smile that could nearly rival John's alighting on her face. "John, that sounds like a great idea! Gosh, that would make food and cleaning shifts so much easier, too! Stupid butts wouldn't have an excuse to shirk their chores off."

  
"Yep! I was thinking about calling a meeting about it after dinner. I was hoping you could help me round everyone up, make sure they're there."  
"Absolutely, John!" Jade literally dropped what she was doing so she could turn and salute her brother. "You can count on me, sir!"

  
John developed an exaggerated serious expression and mimicked her salute, "that's what I like to hear, soldier. Now back to yer station." He used the best impression of Dave's Texan twang he had. It only made it harder for Jade to keep the firm facade up and not dissolve into giggles. She failed. But not before a "sir! Yes, sir!"

  
\----------------

  
As it turned out, John's idea of a daycare was better than even he had initially thought. At least, that's what it sounded like coming from everyone else. Although they'd mostly been keeping up very cheerful attitudes, it was becoming obvious none of them were really ready for what they were doing. Parenting. Who knew it could be so hard? And practically everyone looked some level of exhausted (although John found that he decidedly did not feel exhausted at all).  
It wasn't long before there was a schedule hanging up in the common area, outlining who would work what days. It had taken a lot of arguing and complaints for them to sort it out fairly, But when John put his mind to something, he did it, by golly.

  
It was easy to find an unused room big enough, and Jade sort of went crazy alchemizing things to the point that it was filled with everything from little beds to more toys than John had ever seen in one place in his life. She also put in two fish tanks (at the command of Feferi, who refused to let her glub in the same tank as Eridan's). Really, though, by the time Rose and Kanaya got done decorating it, it was pretty much the cutest baby room John had ever seen.

  
There was, however, one little problem that John would not have in any way been able to forsee.

 

 

 

"What if him and the other grubs don't get along?"

  
Sollux sighed for what had to be the millionth time that night. The next day was supposed to be the start of this whole Daycare business, which had been one of John's better ideas if you asked him. But when he'd come back to their block that evening, he'd found his matesprit curled up in a pile with their grub.

  
"I'm thure they'll be fine," Sollux hummed. He was currently kneeling over John, trying to pry Grubgrub from the human's arms as gently as he could. Man, the little guy was getting a little heavy, wasn't he?

  
"But you've never seen the way Terezi's grub stalks the others! She scared Grubgrub to death the last time they saw each other."

  
Sollux snorted at that, "that'th becauth it'th TZ'th grub. And you have to let them interact like that. Without the caveth, they need thome way to toughen up, each other ith an acceptable alternative."

  
"But what if he get's hurt?"

  
"He won't, John," Sollux sighed again, "pleath let go."

  
After a moment of quiet wibbling, the hold lightened and Sollux stood up straight with the grub. Grubgrub trilled tiredly against his shoulder as he carried the little guy into his room and layed him down.

  
The small vat of soper squished lightly as he got comfy, and Sollux smiled.

  
"Night, GG," he hummed into the quiet, a soft, sleepy coo his only answer.

 

 

John was still in the pile when he made his way back into their own bedroom, he could hear him making unhappy puffs and small whines. It went mostly ignored as Sollux toed off his sneakers and pulled his tee up off over his head.

  
"NnnnSoooolllll."

  
"M'coming, whiney."

  
The pile was made of blankets, pillows and things John called 'squidles'. Which meant that it was soft enough for John's silly human delicacy, but enough of a pile for Sollux to bury himself in. Not that Sollux ever slept in the pile. After him and Jade managed to make a code to make soper, the trolls could sleep in recuperacoons again, and there was one against the wall of their room.  
But he liked curling up against John while the human slept. Whenever sleep threatened to take him, too, he'd just carefully slip out of the pile and climb into the slime.  
John was wrapping himself around the troll before he could even make himself comfy, but Sollux just chuckled. "Are you theriouthly gonna mope all night? Becauth it theemth like a wathte."

  
His hands slid from the human teen's arms up to his face, where he slid John's glasses away. That ridiculous hood was the next to go. At least John had the foresight to take his shoes off before he got into the pile.

  
"He'th going to be fine, John," Sollux murmured softly, his hands found the teen's back under his shirt and rubbed soft circles there.

  
"I know," John sighed at last. Their foreheads bumped lightly together as he nuzzled their noses, and it gave Sollux perfect aim at those soft, warm lips.

  
Arms slid over his shoulders as John pressed into the kiss, head tilting just a bit. His bottom lip was sucked gently between the human's blunt teeth and a hot tongue kneaded it in a manner that sent thrilled little chills down his spine. A content purr vibrated down in his chest.

  
"Yanno, I had a pretty tough day," Sollux was ever mindful of his fangs when he murmured against John's lips.

  
"Did you now."

  
"Mhmm," he hummed into the next kiss.

  
John pulled back with a flick of his tongue against the surface of the troll's sharp teeth. "Is there anything I can do to make your tough day end better?" Gog, he could hear that sexy little smirk. So he smiled in return, opening his empty eyes.

  
"Let me thee you."  
  
  


  
John's heart felt like it fluttered down in his tummy somewhere, and his cheeks felt just a bit warm. Oh he would ask for that, wouldn't he. And there was no way he could say no to the soft smile those grey lips held. So, instead of answering, John kissed him again, a sweet, chaste thing. And then he was pulling back.  
Being in a pile made it tricky, but he managed to wiggle his way out of his pants. Boxers followed with much more embarressment. And then John shifted, he sat up in the pile and gently nudged Sollux onto his back so he could lean over him. The troll's hips were pretty narrow (like just about everything else on him), so he could settle his thighs around them without it being too snug. Cool hands were already coasting up his bare thighs as John pulled his tee off and tossed it somewhere outside the pile. Hell, this was so embarressing.  
'Seeing' for Sollux was happily touching every bare inch of human skin he could reach. Which was all of John. It was the sweetest of foreplay, really. And sometimes Sollux would even click something out in Alternian, softly. John never asked what he was saying, he could pretty much get the gist.  
Little butterflies danced in his tummy when those smooth fingers slid over it, and a claw gently traced his belly button and followed the bare trail of little black hairs that led southward. It would have been unbearably sexy if it didn't tickle to damn much.  
But Sollux seemed to like the giggles he muffled behind his hand. His smile widened just a bit.

  
"You're warmer tonight."

  
John moved his hand to rub one of his eyes, "I turned the heat up a little this morning."

  
"Why?" While he'd been focused on the hand so close to his crotch, the other one had snuck it's way up John's back.

  
"You seemed c-old this morning," John's breathing hitched, back arching a bit when four claws pressed barely into his skin and drug down. The spark it sent into his groin made a certain something twitch with interest.

  
"Did I?" Sollux sat up slowly, his smile turning into a small smirk when he felt something start poking his own tummy. "How thweet of you, but you warm me up juth fine."

  
Despite the shiver wanting to melt down his spine, John gave his boyfriend a small grin. His arms slid over skinny shoulders to hum against his lips, "damn right I do."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I can go finish the follow-up chapter of FOFH! Because I am stupid and write six stories at once!  
> Oh, and if you guys are interested, my tumblr is carinemonster.tumblr.com


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took forever to update. I'm sorry for that. To make up for it, I promise more sexy stuff in the next chapter. Like, right off the bat.

"Alright, listen up you little grub-wubley-wub-wubs! Here's the agenda for today: first off! We're gonna watch some quality cinema, since most of you are still bleary eyed and yawning. Secondly! Play time, the game? Pretend. Then lunch! You'll fill your sloppy faces and tummies. Naptime! Will come swiftly after food. Then more playtime! Then maybe another movie while we wait for your parents. _If_ you behave. Sound good?"  
  
Jade was dressed in cargo shorts and a tank top, hair up in a ponytail like she was about to embark of some wild adventure. Except, instead of boots, there were soft slippers on her feet. Not to have that undermine her authority, though, she carried her rifle in her hand, marching back and forth as she addressed a line of sleepy grubs. Six of them blinked back at her without moving, her words seemed to only excite one, who wiggled her little blue body and legs, tongue hanging from her mouth.  
  
John lowered his eyebrows and finished stepping into the nursery, going to place the little boxes of grub-juice on the cabinet.  
  
"Oh, John! You're here, good, quick, we need a movie to wake them up with."  
  
"Jade, I put the movies by the screen."  
  
"But I've never seen any of these movies, pick one out! Don't you want to stimulate your child's brain through visual and auditorial means???"  
  
John chuckled as he moved over to the screen on the other side of the room, a soft trilling echoing his laugh.  
  
"Ohmygosh John that is so cute!!! Grubgrub knows your laugh~"  
  
"He hears it enough," John picked out a movie and slid it into the player, moving back to the pile all the grubs were sitting in. Grubgrub was tripping over himself to be picked up, and John took him into his lap as he sat down. Jade plopped down too, finally putting her rifle away. And it didn't take long before the rest of the grubs were crawling their way onto the ecto-twin's shoulders and laps.  
Eridan's little Sea Monster claimed a spot on John's shoulder, and hissed at anything that even came close to him. Aside from Grubgrub, a little green grub slid down into his lap. Grubgrub stopped purring immediately, and stared at her with unblinking, yellow eyes. But when she sat herself down primly and ignored him to watch what was coming on the screen, he started purring again and ignored her as well. John chuckled.  
  
"Hello, Darling," Rose and Kanaya's grub really was very well behaved, and smart, too! But he expected no less. Just like he knew Grubgrub and the Sea Monster would both be very smart and clever as well. Because their daddy's were very smart.  
  
The other four grubs crawled all over his sister to make comfy.  
  
About halfway through the film, though, the Little Monster got too excitable and was up and pouncing back and forth in front of the screen, watching and growling and trying to interact. Nepurrta got almost as riled up based on example alone, but stayed in Jade's lap with Feferi's Glub.  
  
By the end of the film, all the grubs were properly awake, and making all sorts of noises, so Jade and John freed them to play about the room.  
  
"They have so much energy! No wonder you guys were getting tired out. I mean, just look at Vriska and Terezi's grub."  
  
The Little Monster was chasing Nepurrta and Glub around the pile, Darling sitting atop it just watching. John was chuckling until her words actually registered completely.  
  
"Wait, Terezi and _Vriska_??"  
  
Jade laughed at his face, sitting down at the table and taking some stuff out of her sylladex. "Oh my gosh, John, you didn't know? I thought you and Vriska were friends!"  
  
"We are! I've just been..kinda busy lately, we all have. Although that's kind of a big thing to miss," John sat down, too, making sure not to sit on his hood.  
  
"What, their kissmesitude? I'll say, considering they're on each other every chance they get."  
  
"Ohhhhh."  
  
"Oh? Oh! You thought I meant they were matesprits! No no no, they are so black for each other, it could eclipse the sun," Jade spread a few papers out and opened a rather large binder. The front was decorated in cute drawings of squiddles around the words 'Supply Ledger'.   
It actually made John pretty damn proud to see everybody taking their responsibilities so seriously. Jade was in charge of everything they needed and would need once they found their planet. She made codes and alchemized things, with the help of Kanaya and Rose. And she was all sorts of good at it; the three of them were the perfect team for knowing exactly what everyone needed.  
  
A slight tugging on his pants leg made John look down, indigo eyes staring back up at him. Gamzee and Tavros's grub was shockingly a quiet little thing, you'd forget he was there most of the time. Truth be told, John actually thought he was a little creepy, and Grubgrub didn't seem to favor him either.  
  
"Can I help you, little guy?" little creeper. The grub didn't even blink, just stared at him, little claws caught in his pants leg. John shifted back a little in his seat to lean down and lift the grub up. "Dear lord, you're heavy." He was, like, twice the weight as Grubgrub!  
  
"Oh yeah, he's gonna be big," Jade commented when she looked up from whatever she was double checking.  
  
"But why?" John tried not to get weirded out when the Creeper finally smiled, little pointed teeth poking out over its lip.  
  
"Because Gamzee's big?" This was true, Gamzee had gotten massive since they'd been on the metoer. Was actually kind of funny to see him rolling Tavros around.  
Although it made him a little nervous, John brought the Creeper into his lap and let him sit there. After a while, he kind of started rolling in his lap and wiggling his legs in the air, and John decided that maybe Creeper wasn't so creepy after all. He was actually kind of cute.  
  
Until sharp teeth sunk into his finger.  
  
  
\----------------------  
  
  
"Alright, Glub and Nepurrta are, like, best friends or something, so don't try to seperate them unless Glub's in her tank. On the other hand, don't let Glub and the Sea Monster anywhere near each other in the tanks or otherwise, Feferi will blow a gasket," John was straightening the pile a little, little grubs curled within and watching the screen.  
  
"The Little Monster is a hand full, but grub juice will calm her down for a while. GG's a sweetie and amazingly friends with the Sea Monster, I think. Just keep an eye on them," he pointed to a box full of worn out squiddles. "Those are their toys when they're being rough with each other. And watch your hands around Creeper, he bites."  
  
Pretty sure he'd mentioned everything, John smiled the most charming smile he had at the pair of ladies who sat at the sitter's table (Jade started calling it that). Rose smiled back as she removed some knitting from her sylladex.  
  
"Yes, thank you, John, I believe we are more than capable of taking it from here."  
  
Kanaya, who was similarly pulling several things from her sylladex, nodded in concurrance, "rest assured, we will keep our eyes on your grub very closely. We know how precious he is to you."  
  
"Awesome! Thanks, ladies. I guess I'll be going now. I've got a meeting with Karkat," John gave a lazy goodbye salute and headed out the door. But Rose's voice was calling back quickly in the form of his name.  
  
"John."  
  
"Yes, Rose?" he said, leaning back into the nursery.  
  
"You do actually have to leave him here. That was the agreement."  
  
Oh. She meant the grub who was currently sleeping/hiding in his hood collar.  
  
"Right," he laughed nervously, gently fishing him out. Grubgrub blinked sleepily up at him, and yawned with a trill. John glanced at Rose who nodded.  
He walked back over to the pile, hesitating.  
  
"Well, goodbye for now, GG," the grub in his arms purred a bit, a line of drool coming out of his mouth. It made John chuckle, and he used the end of his hood to wipe it away. With a kiss to the grub's black fuzz, he finally placed him down next to Darling. "Be a good boy, okay?"  
  
Grubgrub cooed softly, looking up at John, then down at Darling. He seemed to get that his dad was not joining him on the pile, and shyly shifted closer to the green grub. John actually paused to watch with interest.  
Darling glanced over when Grubgrub was close enough to touch. And she let him curl up next to her to go back to sleep, even patted his side with one of her legs. John had to cover his mouth to keep from 'awwwwww!!!'-ing too loud.  
Behind him, Kanaya was doing the same.  
  
  
  
  
"She didn't even seem to mind his drooling, it was so cute!" John gushed about his adorable morning, floating next to the table in the 'City Planning' room. And by city, they all knew it was just going to be a small little town, just enough room for the twenty-two of them, them and their kids.  
  
Karkat was in charge of it; Gamzee, Tavros and Dave were his 'team'. Although Gamzee was pretty much as useless at it as Dave, and John was probably going to change them to being in charge of entertainment once everything was said and done and they were on-planet.  
  
"Man, it makes me happy, too. I was scared he might not get along with the other grubs. Although, I mean, I guess he gets along with Eridan's grub. But that still kind of weirds me out because it's, well, Eridan's. But, I can't judge the grub just because of who it's daddy is."  
  
Karkat was standing at the table in question, scowling just a bit with his eyebrow twitching ever-so slightly. When John stopped for breath, he broke in.  
  
"As _fascinating_ as I'm finding the story of your morning, and as much as I would just fall all over my own two feet to hear you spew forth more nearly incoherant mush, we do need to actually speak about the hives."  
  
"Oh, right! Sorry," John smiled apologetically, lowering himself to stand on the floor next to the troll, to actually work. Which he could do when he got down to it. And the plan Karkat and Tavros had worked up sounded and looked great.  
  
"I really like that you added a place we could all gather and do stuff together."  
  
"Yes, well, I've seen the merits of the room you humans keep referring to as the 'common room', which is a ridiculously obvious name by the way, of course the room is common. It's just a room."  
  
"Oh! Speaking of the common room, we're still having movie night tonight, right?"  
  
Mentioning that finally seemed to perk Karkat up, because he stood up a little straighter, and a smile almost came to his lips. "Of course we are, how else are we going to keep our sanity on this damned forsaken rock. And I picked the perfect movie, too" Oh right, it was Karkat's turn to pick the movie. Eugh, that meant it was gonna be another romcom.  
Well, at the very least, he could just make-out with Sollux during the boring bits.  
  
"Don't make that face, Egbert. This movie is going to be so spectacular that even your sorry little human think pan won't help but be struck by it."  
  
  
  
  
"Do we really have to go?" Sollux frowned where he sat in their respiteblock. He could hear John moving about and fabric rustling. Kanaya had apparently made him some new clothes because all he ever wore around was his god tier clothes (and that was only because they had seemed to grow with him when he shot up those few inches half a sweep ago. Whereas his other clothes had not).  
  
"Yes, we have to go, everybody's going. Well, everybody but Rose and Kanaya because they have the grubs."  
  
"But didn't Karkat pick the movie out?" he really didn't want to have to spend two to three hours listening to the cheesiest romance crap on the face of the galaxy. "Can't we juth thtay and watch one of your movieth here? I doubt anyone will mith uth."  
  
"I'm fairly certain they'll notice our absense, Sol."  
  
"We could alwayth juth let them athume we're pailing," a smirk lit his face as Sollux leaned back in his chair, arms uncrossing. A second later there were warm hands on his shoulders and a familiar weight settling into his lap.  
  
"Or we could go, and if it's starting to look awful, we'll make-out heatedly and excuse ourselves."  
  
"Deal," his slid his hands up what felt like jean-clad thighs. "Now let'th thee theth clotheth, hm?"  
  
"It's nothing all that special, though I do like this shirt, a lot."  
  
From what he could feel, it was jeans, a tee and a zip-up jacket thing.  
  
"She even put the Ghostbusters logo on the back of the jacket, it's awesome."  
  
"What color ith it?"  
  
"Black, and the shirt's, well, it's blue." There was a slight influx to his voice when he said the word 'blue', but Sollux wasn't quite sure what to make of it.  
  
"Blue?"  
  
"Yeah, like my eyes."  
  
"That'th all?"  
  
"Mmm, well," now he sounded a little shy, which was the opposite of John, so Sollux frowned a bit.  
  
"It might have the Gemini symbol on it in red."  
  
Oh.  
  
 _Oh._  
  
John chuckled gently, fingers sliding over Sollux's cheeks when he leaned in to kiss. But it wasn't like he could help the flush of yellow in his face, and he tried to smirk again to cancel it out but he just ended up smiling quite happily.   
John was wearing his symbol, right there on his shirt for everyone to see. It practically screamed, "I belong to Sollux Captor, bitches. Put that in your juice box and suck it." Not that everyone didn't already know that. Seriously, they ended up making out in the back of the room at most movie nights, and they had a freakin' grub together, it was a bit obvious. But just the fact that John wanted to wear his symbol.  
Jegus, it was like the troll equivelent of human engagement.  
  
And it meant John wanted to be with him forever.  
  
"I fucking adore you," damn his voice for wobbling, but he clutched the human teen as hard as he could to himself.  
  
John kissed him again softly, grinning against his mouth when he breathed out, "I love you, too."  
  
  
  
  
"It's actually almost a little disgusting."  
  
"Oh come on, Dave. They're precious and you know it. John! Come sit with us!"  
  
Jade bounced up and waved when she saw her brother enter the common room, his fingers laced with Sollux's. The grin was returned when John spotted them, but he barely got more than a few feet into the room.  
  
"Oh my GOG, John, what the hell is that?!!"  
  
Vriska jerked up from where she had been lazing, since she really didn't want to see the movie and was only there because Terezi made her. But she laughed loudly and pointed, which prompted everyone else to turn and see why.  
  
"You're wearing his sign! AHAHAHAHAA!!!!!!!!"  
  
Terezi joined her cackling, and John flushed near immediately.  
  
"Wwhat..." could be heard faintly, but it was drowned out by the squeals of Nepeta and Feferi. John smiled, embarressed, and Sollux just looked too fucking smug as they shuffled more into the room to sit down with Jade and Dave.  
  
"Does this mean you guys are going to be together furever?! Eeeee, my OTP!!<3"  
  
"John, that's so cute~" Jade chimed in as well, hugging the teen's neck when they'd sat and giving him a smooch on the cheek.  
  
"Yeah yeah, real fucking adorable. Our eyes are bleeding because they cannot handle how damn precious you guys are," Karkat cut off the cooing with his sharp sarcasm. "Now you all should shut the hell up, I'm about to start the film!"  
  
  
It was, as predicted, a long and boring romcom. But John tried to watch it, he really did. Because Karkat just seemed so proud of his choice. But even with a pretty damn clear understanding of troll quadrants, he was still kind of lost. And extremely distracted.  
Extremely distraced.  
  
Sollux had started out just nuzzling his hair not long after the music started, his sharp nose sifting his hair and breathing in. But nuzzling turned into soft kisses being pressed against his ear and neck and temple. John caved easily.  
The movie was sucking anyway.  
  
He turned his head up to meet those lips with his own and sighed so very softly. Good gravy, he didn't think he'd ever get tired of kissing the troll. Even though they spent a surprising amount of their free time lip-locked, it never got old.  
John nibbled on the dark grey lip he suckled into his mouth, and wasted no time in flicking his tongue out against smooth fangs. The corners of Sollux's mouth quirked upward just a bit as sharp teeth parted.  
Troll spit was actually something to contemplate. And he had, when they'd first started this whole relationship. Not that John had a whole lot of experiance kissing (read, none), but he knew human and troll spit was different. For example, troll spit was slimier. And Sollux's specifically tasted kind of like honey. Though he insisted there was no connection between that and the mind honey. John was not convinced, but didn't question it.  
His tongue slipped behind his boyfriend's fangs with practiced care, making the softest of noises in the back of his throat when an amazingly dexterous tongue wound around his own in turn. And just like that, the movie and everyone else in the room was blocked out.  
  
"Man, they are just all up and getting their motherfuckin' mack on back there."  
  
Snickers from around the room actually pried John away from Sollux's mouth, so he could at least have the decency to blush. But when he glanced over to his sister and best bro, he found that they weren't the only ones bored by the movie.  
  
"Oh my god, _Jade_ ," he laughed softly. But his sister didn't even stop, just flipped the rest of the room off and kissed the coolkid with more enthusiasm.  
  
"What?" Sollux asked softly. John shook his head a little, and pecked him on the mouth once more.  
  
"Let's ollie out of here. We have at least another three hours before we have to go pick GG up," he nipped the troll's jaw and murmured softly. "And I washed the bucket out this morning."  
  
"Let'th go."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I might have confused you guys earlier. This is no DaveRezi. They're moirails. I don't ship them red, I ship them pale.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had something long-winded and snarky to put here, but thanks to the longest, sweetest comment EVER, I have been soothed. So, here we have it. Oh, and I lied about the sex thing, it's not gonna happen on-screen this chapter.  
> also, sorry this took so long to update again, I've been busy with, like, babes and stuff. Not sorry for party rockin'.

If hatred was comprised of physical molecules, then Karkat's pure, undistilled loathing could easily achieve a density thicker and harder than Alternian diamonds. Preferably in the shape of a club, so he could beat John Egbert to death with it. Then sit and wait for him to come back to life so he could do it again. It was difficult to really get a grasp on the slew of emotions pumping through his limbs, and chest cavity, and around in his head. But the most prominant was betrayal. Or maybe betrayal was the wrong word, how about cheated? Stabbed in the back? Massively disappointed? Whatever name was pinned on it, it amounted to the same thing. And at this point, he wanted nothing more than to punch the stupid pink monkey in his beautiful face.  
  
He couldn't stand how much he hated him, and he absolutely fucking despised how he knew that he could never actually hate him.  
  
But right now, he definitely could not fucking forgive him. No matter how much he apologized with those scary blue eyes. Those eyes he hadn't seen in two days. Couldn't see. He left every room John walked into, and hid when the windy kid tried hunting him down. He just couldn't deal with it right now.  
  
He knew he wasn't being transparent about this whole thing, he was positive John had zero fucking clue. If he did, his apologies wouldn't carry on with so much hugging and begging. No, that gorgeous idiot's sister was the only one who had any clue, if you didn't count Karkat's equally idiotic pale-mate. But that fucker was nose deep in his own red attentions, so it was no surprise he'd have zero good advice.  
  
No, Harley was much more helpful, not that he'd fucking ever say that out loud. Her head would swell up bigger than it already was. But her advice was always sound.  
  
"Why don't you just tell him the truth?"  
  
Until right now.  
  
"Harley, you have got to be fucking kidding me, not you, too," Karkat pressed his face harder into his hands, elbows gracelessly logging a screen full of 'zxzxxzzx's and '/.;/;'s from leaning on the keyboard.  
  
"Oh, come on you big baby, why's it so hard?"  
  
"Why is it- WHY IS IT SO HARD?" he finally let the screen have a break when his hands flew up in disbelief and frustration. "BECAUSE IT WOULDN'T MAKE A FUCKING DIFFERENCE."  
  
"Because he's with Sollux?" the human girl scooted to sit up on the table next to a computer monitor, one of the forked ends of her hood stuck under her butt.  
  
"Thank you, Harley, for catching up to the rest of the class," he spit out with as much sarcasm as he could, but it just rolled right off of her.  
  
"Wouldn't that make it easier, though?"  
  
"What?!" Honestly, this girl was no longer making sense, _Gamzee_ 's advice was starting to sound better.  
  
"Karkat, look," he hated when she got that look in her eyes, sympathetic and pitying but not in a good way. "We've been over this so many times. How long are you going to let yourself wallow in this pain? You're in love with John, it's not a surprise, he's a great guy. But you know he's got a life with Sollux now, and they _adore_ each other." Her smile was soft and sad. "You need to start letting these feelings go. And I think it'll help make it easier if you just..tell him the truth."  
  
Gog, he hated how much sense the stupid human girl made. Always, she always made so much sense to Karkat. And in a way that was so very...kind. So he sighed and slouched back in his seat.  
  
Telling John. What was the worst that could happen? He already knew he'd be rejected, so really it couldn't go further than John just never talking to him again. Well, technically, they'd have to speak still. But the most lost would be their friendship. And at this point, there was no way that could hurt more than having to see the guy he's flushed for lighting up someone else's dark world.  
  
And there was no way he'd ever, _ever_ try to break them up. Sollux had been through so much hell, lost so much, he deserved John. Much more than Karkat ever would.  
  
Bitter truth swallowed like a hard rock in his throat, the Cancer finally nodded his head. Just ever-so slightly, to let Jade see. And she smiled. That same soft, sympathetic smile. She didn't say anything else, just hopped off the table and pulled her hood up.  
  
"I gotta go work on some stuff, then help Nepeta with dinner, see you at the table tonight?"  
  
Karkat nodded again, still staring at his screen in thought. Jade stepped over and leaned down to press a friendly kiss to the troll's temple.  
  
"Good, and try to relax a little. You put yourself through too much emotional stress."  
  
He sighed after she was gone.  
  
Man, she was right.  
  
  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
It took a few minutes for the door to open, and when it did slide aside, Karkat was actually a little surprised at who did answer.  
  
"I thought you were working, Captor."  
  
"I wath, KK. Now I'm not. You never vithit either, tho thith ith a little weird."  
  
"I just... wanted to talk to John. Is he here?"  
  
"Oh _now_ you want to talk to him. Finally dragging your head out of your nook?"  
  
Karkat grit his teeth, but silenced the growl of frustration that rose in his throat. "Fuck you, Captor. Can I speak with him or not?"  
  
"You could, if he wath here. But he'th not."  
  
Karkat went quiet a moment, staring at the slightly taller troll. Sollux's face was impassive, staring straight ahead at nothing in particular, light reflecting off the dark lenses he wore so that the rest of the group didn't have to stare into his empty sockets. The trolls wouldn't have cared, but it apparently freaked Jade and Dave out.  
  
"Then why are you here?"  
  
"Excuth me? I live here."  
  
"Well, yeah, I know that dumbass. But aren't you always with that free floating monkey when you're not working on your planetary assignments?"  
  
Sollux actually snorted, relaxing to lean against the door frame, arms crossing over his chest and facing downward now. "It'th funny how often you call him nameth. Are you thure you're not thtill black for him, inthtead of red?"  
  
"Wh-" Karkat's spine locked up rigid, vascular pump dropping a beat as he gaped (an act he would openly deny later if Sollux could actually see it).  
  
"Oh pleath, everyone thinkth their tho good at keeping thecreth even a blind troll could thee," Sollux pushed the glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "Or maybe I can thee them _becauth_ I'm blind, who knowth."  
  
Karkat didn't know what to say, for fucking once in his life. If Sollux already knew, did John? Was he wasting his time?  
  
"I'm not mad, you know. That you like him. I mean, I finally underthtand why you liked him to begin with," the Gemini smiled a little sadly then. "I juth hope you don't think I thtole him from you. Honeth to Gog wath not my intention, we juth thort of... happened."  
  
This and other things Karkat knew. He'd watched them just sort of 'happen', and had sat by and done nothing about it.  
  
"...I don't blame you," his voice was a lot softer when he said that, but he knew he'd been heard. Even if they both lasped into silence, at least it wasn't as heavy as it could have been.  
  
"He'th in the daycare room, averting dithathter from what I underthtand."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"And KK?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"We thould hang out thometime, like we uthed to."  
  
The tiniest hint of a sad smile may of quirked the corners of Karkat's mouth, but it was just another one of those things he'd have denied if anyone had seen it.  
  
"Fine, whatever."  
  
  
\------------------------------  
  
  
"No! Vriska, that is not how you play with a child, put him down! Terezi! Please watch where you're hitting with that cane! G'aahhhh! Creeper, get down from there!!"  
  
Karkat pretty much regretted opening the door immediately. He'd never set foot in the daycare room, never had a reason to, he wasn't on the grubsitting schedule. Now he remembered why he never signed up for it. This was chaos.  
  
"Karkat, hold them!" John, frantic, shoved two grubs into his arms, yellow and green eyes blinking up at him. He watched the windy kid trying to catch Gamzee's grub from falling off the giant monitor screen, _and_ attempting to disengage a purple, hissing beast from a full-grown, equally hissing she-beast. Sitting on a table off to the side, Terezi cackled and randomly smacked her cane against the floor in weird patterns. Amidst it, like it was some sort of maze, the Little Monster and Nepurrta chased each other, barely being missed by the cane's taps that could easily squish them.  
  
When warm liquid dripped down his hands, Karkat returned his gaze to the grubs he was holding, and it turned to a look of disgust. Sollux's fucking grub was drooling. Everywhere.  
  
He could feel the angry heat in his face as he grit his teeth harder than ever before, Terezi's sharp laugh, Vriska's growls and yell of anger when the grub bit her, and John's panicked pleas. He broke.  
  
"WOULD YOU INESCAPABLE ASSHOLES CEASE THE CACOPHANOUS WAILING YOU CONSIDER SPEECH RIGHT THE FUCK NOW?!" His words rang off the walls with resounding silence; beautiful, lovely silence. All eyes were on him.  
  
"John, what the cluster-fuck were you thinking when you let these two pair up as grubsitters? Honestly, neither of them should ever be allowed within the same room as the grubs, they'll ruin their think pans before they even reach their pupa period. You two, out!"  
  
"Excuse you, Mr. Candy-blood McLoser, you can't tell us we can't-"  
  
" _Out_."  
  
John managed to catch the Sea Monster when Vriska sighed dramatically and tossed it to the side.  
  
"Was just gonna toughen the little twerps up, but whatever, oh leader," she said the last part in a mocking tone, grabbing the end of Terezi's walking cane. "C'mon, babe. This place blows."  
  
"See ya, Little Monster. Make mommy proud," Terezi quiped with a sharp grin, following where her cane was pulled. Which was thankfully out of the room. Karkat put the two grubs he was holding down on the floor when they were gone.  
  
"Um, thanks. for that," John tried to smile, and pick up scattered pieces of destroyed squiddles. But he bit his lip in that way Karkat knew meant he had more to say. So Karkat just got to it.  
  
"John, I'm still mad at you."  
  
"Kark-"  
  
"Shut up until I'm finished."  
  
John's mouth snapped shut again, and he sat down on one of the piles, looking up with that damn blue eyes. Creeper wiggled out of no where and flopped back on it's back in John's lap, just chillin'.  
  
"I'm not mad about the movie. I mean, I am. You said you'd be there to watch it, and I was hoping we would be able to discuss the finer details afterwards like we usually do. But instead you ran off to fuck your matesprit not even a third of the way into the movie. So, yeah, I'm pretty fucking peeved about that." Karkat sat in one of the table chairs, rubbing a hand through his thick hair. "But I know you're sorry, you don't have to keep apologizing, and I'll get over it eventually."  
  
John was biting his lip again with that ridiulous overbite, "kay..."  
  
"But there's..something else."  
  
The human teen nodded in a way that said, 'I'm all ears', so Karkat hesitantly trudged on. Hell, fuck trudging, why not just dive into it.  
  
"John, I'm completely fucking flushed for you."  
  
It was easy, and almost funny, to watch the surprise flick across his features. and Karkat cut him off the second he opened his mouth. "I know you're with Sollux, everybody fucking knows." He looked pointedly at John's shirt. "And I'm not trying to steal you away from him, and I don't expect pity or anything like that, and I really don't want to discuss it. I just...thought you deserved to know. And you're stupid sister said it would help me get over you, so. There you have it."  
  
John looked at a loss for anything to say for a long few moments. But he finally uttered an, "oh."  
  
They both went silent, and Karkat absently watched Terezi and Nepeta's grubs chase each other around still, like they were made of unending energy.  
  
"Alright," the soft voice broke his absent thoughts, and he looked up to find John smiling hopefully. "But, we're still...bros, right?"  
  
Karkat sighed, but let himself smile just the tiniest bit, "Of course. I don't want it any other way."  
  
"Awesome. Um, Karkat?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You kicked Vriska and Terezi out, so, who's gonna watch the grubs?"  
  
He looked down to find John and Sollux's grub staring up at him, just sitting by his feet, purring and blinking and drooling. If it wasn't so gross, he might think it was cute.  
  
"I guess we are."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, so in reality, this took a million years longer than it should have. the chapter was actually sitting, mostly done, on my desktop for a month just collecting dust and i feel really bad about that. it's just that a lot has happened recently, so i haven't gotten much writing done.  
> i'm also ending it here. sorry for the lack of any real plot. i just don't know how to carry it on. but my love goes out to you all for your support thus far. really, thank you.

It was a dull sort of throbbing that woke him up, dragging his mind from the dark and calm clutches of sleep. As he blinked, laying there in the dimly lit room, it took several moments to register everything. The first thing he became aware of was the skinny chest his cheek was pressed against, and the long arms wrapped around his back.

"Mm, trouble shleeping again?" he mumbled out before yawning, voice thick with the sleep he was still shaking off. It was then that his mind registered what had actually woken him up, what the dull sort of throbbing was.  
It was pain.

"Sollux?" John frowned as his tilted his head up. The troll's eyelids were closed and he didn't respond. His lips were pulled down in a faint scowl that had the tips of fangs peeking through. And the claws.

John didn't move an inch. He was wide awake now and he knew better. This had only happened once before, and he'd quickly learned his lesson from the last time. But he did tilt his face closer to his boyfriend's, without even budging so those claws didn't sink any further into his skin.

"Sollux," he said once again, soft and calm. He could feel the troll's breath on his face, short little puffs out through his nose. He twitched and his fingers clenched a little tighter on John's back. "Ah-Sol, I need you to wake up."

The closest thing his lips could reach was a sharp chin, so he pressed the softest, featherlight kiss there. And several more, all the while murmuring gently, trying to rouse him. His fingers, which were idle on the thick skin of the troll's back, started moving in little circles, caressing with care.

"Sol, please."

After several long moments, where John feared this might not even work, a clicking sound started to interrupt the short puffs of breath. It started to vibrate deep in the Gemini's throat until it turned into outright purring. And John felt him take deeper, longer breaths; and his face started to relax, as did the claws digging into his back.

"Sollux?" He tried again.

"Mmzzzzzzzzzznnn."

"Sol."

A long jumble of slurred clicks eased out from Sollux's lips when he finally parted them, John smiled softly. "I don't understand Alternian, bee, you know that."

Sollux just groaned lightly and rolled over a bit, pressing John more into the pile and nuzzling in closer.

"You forgot to get into your recuperacoon last night," John finally moved his arms, fingers sifting up into short, thick hair. When they bumped against one of four horns, he scratched the skin around the base. The purring got almost instantly louder.

"Mmnnn."

"Those still aren't distinguishable words, bee."

"Like thleeping withoo."

John's smile widened at how cute his voice came out. English, yes. But his lisp was thicker, and he bit into that 'k' a little too hard.

"I know you do, bee. But remember what happened last time?"

The troll was quiet for a moment, purrs softening gradually until it just stopped. When he spoke again, it was a lot more like normal.

"...Did I hurt you?"

John hesitated half a second before answering, "it stings a bit, but I don't think it's lasting."

"Jeguth shit," Sollux detached himself from his human matesprit, sitting up clumsily in the pile. "Where did I-oh, gog, John, I'm tho thorry." He could no doubt feel the warm blood on his fingertips, and smell it judging by the way he jerked his hand away from his face.

"Hey," John sat up, too, wincing just a little from the stings of pain in his shoulder blades. "Sol, it's okay."

A kiss stopped the incoherent stream of Alternian cursing, soft and loving and reassuring. 

"It's really not that bad. I'll just ask Rose over to clean me up, and I'll be fine. Okay? I swear I'm okay." He took the troll's hands in his and stood them both up out of the pile, "just go check on GG, alright? He's a hungry little booger when he wakes up."

Three more promising kisses later, John had his boyfriend up, at least partially dressed and shooed off into their grub's room. He himself just pulled on the first tee he could find on the floor, gingerly, and was on his was to the bathroom when there were four very curt knocks on their front door.

He glanced down at himself and decided that boxers and a tee shirt was dressed enough to answer the door.

Although he probably should have reconsidered.

Eridan already had his mouth open the speak when the door slid open, clearly expecting Sollux, but when it was the shorter human who answered instead, his mouth snapped closed, violet eyes going a bit wide.  
Then he quickly averted his eyes and coughed slightly.

"John, is Sol here?"

"Yeah, he's just getting GG up. You need to talk to him?"

"I need him to come wwith me to the labs, it's fuckin' important."

"Important?" John stepped back, beckoning the troll inside with an inclination of his head. "Is it something bad?"

Eridan hesitantly stepped just over the threshold, but no further. "Not bad, just really important." He stood still as the door shut behind him again, just watching as John retreated further into the block.

"Kay, I'll get him."

John stopped off by the bedroom first to tug on the first pants his feet touched (thankfully his own), before ambling into the other bedroom. He stopped short at the doorway, a soft smile stretching his face as he leaned against the frame.

"Who wath at the door?" Sollux was gently wiping the ever fatter grub clean of green slime, made easy since GG was still groggy and not wiggling nearly as much as he could have.

"Eridan; says he needs you to go with him to the labs."

"Tell him to thuck a bulge, ith my day off."

"I dunno, Sol," John shrugged and regretted the action when his shoulders stung. "He said it was important."

His boyfriend turned around, cradling their happy lump of a grub who cooed sleepily. John's grin went even softer if it was at all possible, and he closed the distance between them to lean up for a small peck of a kiss.

"I can feed him. And if Eridan's keeping you too long at the labs, we'll come by and rescue you. Kay?"

The Gemini sighed a little dramatically, but nodded, "kay. Juth don't forget to have thomeone clean you thoulderth, alright?"

"Oh trust me, I won't," John followed his promise up with another kiss, slightly more lingering than the last, and gently took the bundle into his own arms to cradle.

 

When he was dressed in fresh clothes, Sollux finally emerged from the respiteblocks to find Eridan still waiting right by the door.

"Thith had better be good."

 

\-----

 

"Karkat!" John halted very abruptly when he nearly toppled through the daycare doorway. The windy thing was the only reason he remained upright because gosh was GG getting big.

"I think there's something wrong with Grubgrub! He's not staying awake properly, and he keeps oozing some kind of weird goo??? Is he sick!?"

"John, please, for the sake of us all, lower the decibels of your already overbearing voice. He's not sick."

"He's not?" it was then that John actually bothered to look up, instead of down at the grub he had wrapped up in a blanket. And he noticed something was weird about the daycare room.

"What's......going on?"

"It's the pupa period, dumbass."

"Look John, cocoons!" Jade bouncing excitedly from one foot to another around two pillows on the floor. Both one had was looked like butterfly cacoons on them, only a million times bigger. Spread out along the floor were other pillows with sleepy headed grubs on them, each oozing that weird stuff just like GG, and suddenly, all the panic just whooshed out of John all at once.

"It's why they've all been getting so fat lately," Karkat had a marker in hand, and was writing people's names on the pillows. 

"The Little Monster and Glub have already hardened. Oh here, John!" Jade found another pillow and dropped it on the floor next to Darling. "You can put GG here if you'd like."

Both fascinated and thrilled, John dropped down to the pillow and extracted his grub from the blanket. GG trilled very softly as he laid him down.

"How long does the pupa period last?"

"Couple months," Karkat replied, scrawling two messy G's on the pillow before standing up. "We just have to make sure the room stays at a constant temperature."

"Ohmygosh! Look! He's doing it!"

John actually jumped a little when their grub started coughing? "Is he okay-ho-ly crap."   
GG spat some sort of weird string like stuff out of his mouth, into the first set of claws. And even as he pulled it down more, it just poured from his mouth like it was never ending.

"He's making his cocoon, just don't touch him."

"He's making-this is...whoa."

 

After sitting there just watching for a good twenty minutes, Karkat finally pulled John off the floor. "You don't have to watch, it's going to take a while. What you guys should do is go tell everyone else what's going on." He pushed the human boy upright on his feet, and then started pushing him and Jade towards the door.

"I'll keep an eye on them just to make sure they don't go rolling away. Now, shoo."

"Wow, really rude, Karkat," Jade complained, but only got the door shut in her face. So she huffed. "Whatever. Hey John? How about I go tell everyone the good news, and you can go tell Sollux, yeah?"

"Yeah..." John nodded slowly. But soon a smile was lighting up his face again, and he nodded more. "Yeah!"

The closer he got to the labs, feet automatically taking him there without much thought, the more it all started to sink in. The grubs were pupating. That meant when they were done, they'd be little baby trolls. Little walking, talking, thinking trolls! Holy friggin' crap!!  
John didn't even realize when he'd stopped walking and started zipping around through the halls with his windy thing. He reached a transportalizer in no time, and was gone quicker than that.

"Sol!" he brought himself to a very abrupt halt the moment he was in the labs, a few wayward drafts buffeting behind him gently. He didn't care that he was interrupting something, and immediately locked his arms around the skinny troll's waist when he turned around. John rubbed his nose into his boyfriend's chest, grinning so hard his cheeks hurt.

"John? Wath wrong?" a pair of arms wrapped about his back in return.

"Nothing!" he raised his head, still beaming so bright it could have blinded Sollux under different circumstances. "It's the grubs, they're pupating!! Like, right now!"

"Wwhat? All of them?"

"Yeah!" John beamed at Eridan, too. But turned back to find a surprised happy look on his boyfriend's face.

"Really?"

"Yes! Even GG, I sat and watched him forever, it was....kinda gross. But awesome at the same time!"

The troll in his arms laughed, a relieved sort of laugh John was surprised he was letting Ampora hear. It made the exhilaration in his veins that much sweeter.

"Thath great, John," the kiss aimed for his mouth ended up kind of on his nose. But John just laughed and tilted his head up for the real thing. It was firm and loving, and made the windy kid just a bit airy feeling in the head. When they pulled apart, he was seconds away from asking what that was all about, until he finally noticed the big screen behind the troll.

"What's..going on?"

It was still all in Alternian, so John couldn't read a word of it. But a planet graced the screen, and the one next to it, statistics and observations and other things John couldn't hope to understand. And there were notifications, flashing green.

Sollux smiled wider than he'd seen in a while, turning around so John could see more.

"We found it, John."

"Huh?" John felt his heart stutter.

"Thith ith it," Sollux kissed his little human's soft hair. "We found our new home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuuuughhhghghghgh I'M SO SORRY THE ENDING IS SO BAD


End file.
